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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

SPOILERS: Batgirl #36

Now that we're past the culture shock phase of this new Batgirl direction, let's get down to business kicking some anime cosplayer's asses. Yeah... never saw that in Batgirl before, did you?

The Spoilers:

Babs' new life in Burnside continues, as does Black Canary's passive aggressive streak towards her due to the whole burning the apartment down deal. Nevertheless, Babs has to get to school to meet a professor. Unfortunately, the Prof she needs to meet isn't there, but another by the name of Jeremy Degroot is, who introduces Babs to Nadimah, her research assistant. As Jeremy leaves, it's clear there's an awkward attraction between the two. Regardless, Babs needs help restoring her computer but doesn't have enough cash for a hard drive big enough, so Nadimah says her brother in the robotics lab can help.

One trip to the lab later and Babs gets a hard drive from Qadir, but also notices the cops who are investigating the theft of two experimental motorcycles. The bikes don't take long to show up as two anime looking girls show up causing all sorts of shit, so Babs slips away into her costume, and goes one on two with the Jawbreakers for the first time, which ends in a stalemate, the Jawbreakers retreating.

Babs spends the rest of the day investigating, heading to a hobby shop to ask if they know anyone who may fit the description, and back to the crime scene where she gets Qadir to build her a new grappling gun. Luckily for Babs, the tracker on the bikes turn back on and she finds the Jawbreakers waiting for her in an abandoned warehouse. After an inspirational childhood memory of her dad talking about what it means to be a hero, Babs ends up beating and tying up the Jawbreakers... But that's where things get interesting. The Jawbreakers tell Babs that she, as in Batgirl told them to come after her as hard as they could, and that's when they'd get their full million dollars. Things don't add up, but nevertheless, Babs leaves them for the cops.

Then the next day at school Babs has a sort of terrible two minutes where Degroot finds out her program isn't exactly up and running at the moment, followed by her roommate Frankie walking in asking if Degroot is the cute professor she was talking about... so we end on Babs smacking her head against the table.

END.

The Review:

It's sort of amazing how normal this felt to me after the first issue in this direction. I was completely onboard after that first issue so this month things just felt real easy to get into. In terms of the plot, I was a bit lost as to the "why" factor of the Jawbreaker's actions, but once the issue gets to the "You told us to come after you" plot point, that's when everything turns into a head scratcher, and looking at December's solicit, we'll probably learn more then. Other than that, it was a fun issue, I still love seeing Babs having a life... Although, the whole Degroot thing comes off a little creepy with the whole young student, not so young, but not that old professor cliche. But whatever, not a huge deal.

The art continues to just be flat out fantastic. Cameron Stewarts layouts pack a whole bunch of panels in allowing for some crazy action sequences, and Tarr's art over them with Wicks on colors is just so god damn eye pleasing. If you can look at this book and think it visually looks bad, I don't care to know you. Like Gotham Academy, this book has skyrocketed up to being one of the best books in terms of visuals that DC puts out.

So, if you haven't figured it out by now, so far the new Batgirl is two for two with me, and I'm am real glad to be reading a fun Batgirl series again.